Saïdia: A Gentle Guide to Morocco's Flattest Beach Town

Most Moroccan towns ask something of your knees. Medinas climb, kasbahs perch, mountain villages fold themselves into slopes. Saïdia asks almost nothing. It lies flat along the Mediterranean in the far north-east of the country, in Berkane Province of the Oriental region, and its main attraction is a single unbroken ribbon of golden sand roughly 14 kilometres long, running from the mouth of the Kiss river on the Algerian border west to the mouth of the Moulouya.

Moroccans call it the Blue Pearl, and in July and August it is a cheerful, crowded family resort. Our angle is different: come in the shoulder weeks, in late spring or early autumn, when the sea is still warm, the promenade is half empty, and the loudest sound at breakfast is the eucalyptus trees behind the beach.

This is not a town of great monuments. It is a town for walking a level path in the morning, sitting under a parasol at midday, eating grilled fish in the evening, and watching flamingos in a river mouth twenty minutes away. For travellers over 60, that combination is rarer than it sounds.

A little history

Saïdia is young by Moroccan standards, and it began as a watchtower rather than a holiday town.

In 1883 Sultan Hassan I — Moulay El Hassan — ordered a kasbah built on the left bank of the Kiss river, the stream that still marks the frontier with Algeria. Its purpose was plain: to keep an eye on the corridor between Morocco and an Algeria then under French control. The fort was substantial, covering something in the order of 15,000 square metres, and the town that grew up around it took its name from the sultan.

For most of the twentieth century Saïdia stayed small and seasonal, a place where families from Oujda and Berkane came to swim in July and August and then went home. The change arrived in 2009, when the large Mediterrania-Saïdia resort development opened west of the old centre, adding a marina, hotels and a golf course.

The result today is a town of two halves: a modest, walkable old centre around the kasbah, and a spacious modern resort strip along the sand. Neither is historic in the way Fez or Tétouan is historic. Come for the coast, and treat the 1883 walls as a pleasant twenty-minute curiosity rather than the reason for the journey.

Looking east from Saïdia towards the Algerian coast across the bay.

What to see

The long beach

The beach is the town, and it is genuinely exceptional: soft golden sand, gently shelving, stretching roughly 14 kilometres. In the centre and along the resort strip it is organised, with parasols, cafés and lifeguards in season; further west it becomes wilder and almost empty. The Mediterranean here is notably calmer than Morocco's Atlantic shore, with no serious surf on ordinary days — one reason Saïdia is so popular with grandparents and small grandchildren at the same time.

The seafront promenade

The paved promenade behind the sand is the single best thing about Saïdia for anyone who wants exercise without effort. It is level, wide and long, with benches and cafés at intervals, and you can turn back whenever you like. Early morning and the hour before sunset are the pleasant times; the middle of a summer day is not.

The marina

The marina at Mediterrania-Saïdia holds several hundred berths and is lined with restaurants and ice-cream places. There is little to do beyond stroll, look at boats and eat, which is exactly the point. Sailing and diving schools operate here in season. In the evening the quays light up and the whole town seems to drift over for a walk.

The kasbah and the Sunday souk

The old fort still stands in the town centre, low and earth-built, ringed by palms. Alongside it, an open-air weekly souk is traditionally held on Sundays between the citadel and the market — a good, ordinary Moroccan market of vegetables, olives, clothes and household goods, rather than a tourist bazaar. Go early, go slowly, and keep a hand on your bag in the crush.

The eucalyptus woods

Behind the beach lies a belt of eucalyptus forest, and the approach to the main sand passes through it. The shade is welcome, the smell after rain is wonderful, and the paths are flat. In August the town also hosts a folk music festival, which fills the evenings with drums and crowds.

The wide sandy beach at Saïdia, Berkane Province.

A day trip nearby

The finest half-day from Saïdia costs nothing at all: the mouth of the Moulouya, at the western end of the bay, roughly 20 to 30 minutes away by car or taxi.

This estuary was classified a Site of Biological and Ecological Interest in 1994 and added to the Ramsar list of wetlands of international importance in 2005. Where the river meets the sea there are lagoons, dunes and reedbeds, and the bird list is serious: greater flamingo, avocet, marsh harrier, osprey, terns and Audouin's gull among many others. Spring and autumn migration are the richest periods. Bring binoculars, go at first light or late afternoon, keep to the marked paths and observation huts, and expect sandy, uneven ground near the water.

Inland, Berkane is about 30 to 40 minutes away, a busy agricultural town famous across Morocco for its clementines and its olive oil — the souk alone justifies the trip in winter. From Berkane a narrow road climbs south into the Beni Snassen mountains and the Zegzel valley, a green gorge of cliffs, fig and almond trees and small springs, with the forest village of Tafoughalt higher up. It is beautiful and noticeably cooler than the coast. Be honest with yourself about the road: it is winding, narrow in places and has drops, so it is better done with a local driver than behind your own wheel.

Trees standing in line in the Saïdia area; a belt of woodland separates the town from its beach.

Honest advice for comfortable travel

• Almost no stairs, almost no slopes. Saïdia is as flat as Moroccan destinations get. The promenade, the marina and the town centre are all level, which makes it an unusually easy place for anyone with a stick, a bad hip or simple caution about steps.
• Choose your hotel by walking distance, not by view. Distances along the strip are long and there is no shade between buildings. If you want to reach a café or the marina on foot, book within a few hundred metres of it and ask the hotel to confirm before you pay.
• Sand is the real obstacle. Soft, deep sand is hard work and the beach is wide. Look for accommodation with direct beach access and, in season, a boardwalk or matting; otherwise plan to enjoy the sea from the promenade and a café terrace.
• July and August are hot and very busy. Days regularly climb well above comfortable, and the town fills with domestic holidaymakers. Late May to June, and September into early October, give warm water — the sea is at its warmest in August and swimmable roughly June to October — with far fewer people.
• Understand the low season. From about November to April Saïdia is peaceful and mild, but many hotels, cafés and beach businesses simply close. Lovely for walking and birdwatching; thin for dining and nightlife.
• Sun discipline. There is very little natural shade on the open beach. Hat, long sleeves, sunglasses, water, and the shelter of a parasol between roughly 12 and 4.
• Transport. There is no train to Saïdia. Grand taxis and pre-booked cars are the practical way in and out; agree the fare before departing. Within town, small taxis handle short hops easily.
• Practicalities. Carry cash in dirhams for markets, taxis and small cafés, as card acceptance is patchy outside hotels. Pharmacies and a health centre exist in town, but for anything complicated the hospitals are in Berkane or Oujda, roughly 40 to 75 minutes away.
• The border. Algeria is immediately across the Kiss river and the land frontier is closed. Do not wander east along the sand beyond the marked end of the beach, and expect a visible security presence, which is entirely routine.

The beach beside Saïdia's marina.

What to eat

Saïdia eats from the sea and from the orchards behind it.

Grilled fish is the staple: sardines, sea bream, sole and whatever the day's boats brought in, usually served plainly with salad, bread and a wedge of lemon. Fish tagine, cooked with tomato, peppers and chermoula, is the gentler option if you would rather not deal with bones. Prawns and calamari appear on most marina menus.

The Oriental region has its own kitchen, quite distinct from the tourist menus of Marrakech. In nearby Oujda, karane — a baked chickpea cake of Andalusian origin, eaten from a paper wrapper with cumin and lemon — is a genuine local institution, as is boubbouche, snails simmered in a spiced broth and served by the ladleful. Both are street food, and better from a busy stall than a restaurant.

Berkane's clementines are famous nationwide, sweet and seedless, and the region's olive oil and honey are excellent souvenirs. Breakfast means msemen or harcha with butter, honey and mint tea. Finish the day with pastries scented with orange blossom, which grows all around here.

A practical note: portions are generous and dinner starts late in summer. If you prefer to eat earlier, the marina cafés serve continuously through the afternoon.

Saïdia's marina lit up after dark.

Getting there

Our verdict

Saïdia will not give you the emotional jolt of Chefchaouen's blue lanes or Fez's tanneries. What it gives instead is something many travellers over 60 come to value more: a place where the ground is flat, the sea is calm, the walk is as long or as short as you choose, and nothing needs to be conquered.

Go in the shoulder weeks. Take a room close to a café you like. Walk the promenade before breakfast, spend a morning among the flamingos at the Moulouya, buy clementines in Berkane, eat fish at the marina as the lights come on, and repeat until you have to leave.

If you want monuments, spend three days in Fez first and come here afterwards to recover. Saïdia is very good at recovery.

Oriental Bay Beach at Saïdia, looking along the Mediterranean shore.

“Fourteen kilometres of sand, and not a single step to climb.”

Photo credits

• EmmanuelForestSaidiaPlage: VEROKIO, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
• Boot in saidia: Flodderinbelgie, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Plage de Saidia - Province de Berkane: Brahim FARAJI, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Forest in saidia: Mohameddouhaji, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Saidia marina beach: Meryem BOURAS, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Saidia's Marina by night - Berkane Morocco by Brahim FARAJI: Farajiibrahim, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
• Oriental Bay Beach, Saidia: MONUMENTA, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons